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Environmental amenities enhance and support the health of community members. Yet urban communities with high concentrations of minority, low income and new immigrant residents are disproportionately burdened by environmental disamenities such as food deserts, landfills, air pollution and undeveloped brownfield parcels, which have a negative impact on public health.

This project team confronted environmental injustice and community health issues in a disadvantaged urban neighborhood in Dallas, Texas, in partnership with students at Paul Quinn College. Team members at both schools applied community-based participatory research methods in which traditional research subjects become research partners. They collaborated with community partners to use techniques such as such as interviews, surveys and Photovoice to examine links between ecological restoration, redevelopment and community health and to define options for addressing health disparities and sustainably revitalizing the neighborhood.